Ironically, the same principles which stimulate adoration for Japanese role-playing games are also the reasons why the genre has a constituency of critics. Much like haiku, the beauty of the JRPG stems from the scope ...

What is the concept? While EuroRPGs such as Venetica, Risen, Arcania: Gothic 4, and Divinity II: The Dragon Knight Saga might lack a bit of polish, few can criticize these games for a deficiency of ...

This week, a number of classic gaming series return once more. Pikmin 3 repeals the franchise’s nine-year hiatus, while Tales of Xillia sees the long-running Namco franchise return for its thirteenth installment. Of course, once ...

During the heyday of the coin-op era, the brawler enjoyed an extended period of quarter-gorging success. The reason for the genre’s popularity was clear: titles like Double Dragon, Final Fight, and Bad Dudes articulated the ...

After weighing in on next-generation’s launch line-up, upcoming Fall titles, and the Phil Fish meltdown, the crew offers impressions of Dragon’s Crown, Invizimals: The Lost Tribes, Tokyo Jungle Mobile, as well as revisits a few ...

Look past Retro Game Challenge’s collection of faux-Famicom titles, and the title divulges an implicit takeaway: despite cultural and geographical differences, the medium of gaming created an undeniable similarity across Eastern and Western childhoods. Much ...

Although absorbing character arcs are ubiquitous in anime, few depictions of development have been as gratifying as the first thirteen episodes of Hanasaku Iroha: Blossoms for Tomorrow. Viewers witnessed protagonist Ohana Matsumae move from Tokyo ...

From the return of the dreaded Eggplant Wizard in Kid Icarus, Rise of the Triad’s masochistic El Oscuro and those infamous yellow shielded spiders in PixelJunk Monsters, memorable old foes underscore this week’s list of ...

Ex-Bungie designer Jaime Griesemer once explained Halo: Combat Evolved as “thirty seconds of fun that happened over and over again”. In essence, the design philosophy centered around building a rock-solid game mechanic that could be ...

What is the concept? Savvy shmup enthusiasts might be familiar with Mamoru-kun wa Norowarete Shimatta! (direct translation Mamoru-kun Has Been Cursed!). Originally a NAOMI-based arcade coin-op, the game was ported onto Japanese consoles with an ...